Indian Airline Failed to Plan Schedules Around New Regs, Canceled 4,500 Flights Last-Second

IndiGo’s holiday meltdown has officially turned into an incredibly expensive operational oopsie, with the Indian airline now expecting to pay more than $55 million in compensation after botched roster planning met newly tightened duty-and-rest regs. The result was more than 4,500 flight cancellations in just over a week and a logistical mess that stranded hundreds of thousands of passengers.

The worst of the chaos hit on December 3-5, when IndiGo’s miscalculations left flights to be scrapped just hours, or in some cases minutes, before departure. The turmoil forced India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation to step in, ordering IndiGo to slash 10% of its domestic winter schedule to settle things down.

To address the immediate fallout, IndiGo announced that “severely impacted” passengers stranded at airports on December 3, 4, and 5 will receive 10,000-rupee ($110 USD)  travel vouchers valid for one year. These vouchers are in addition to mandatory government compensation for flights canceled within 24 hours of departure, which come with about the same price tag.

The total for these payouts, according to the airline, may reach a new record at more than $55 million. That figure does not account for delayed flights or the many travelers stranded well beyond typical thresholds.

Passengers affected on December 6-7, despite also seeing significant disruptions, are not included in the voucher program. IndiGo categorizes those days as part of “network adjustments” rather than the core failure window. Several complaints are already under review by government agencies, with some passengers even taking the matter to court.

IndiGo claims operations really began stabilizing on December 9, though investigations into the planning breakdown remain underway. And, despite the unprecedented scale of the disruption, the carrier maintains that the bulk of cancellations stemmed from adapting to revised rules rather than deeper structural issues.

FMI: www.goindigo.in